By a Thread
by mugglefan
Summary: When Albus woke up, it become quickly clear that something was wrong. For one, he was no longer in his body. For another, his body was on the ground nearby, struggling to survive. Someone tried to kill him, and he has to figure out who it was... all while being invisible to everyone around him.
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of this.**

**Warnings: This will include torture and attempted murder of a minor. **

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He woke up slowly, as if he was waking up from a long nap. He was freezing, and his body ached like he had been run over by a hippogriff. His head felt like it was trying to split open and a pulsing pain was coming from his side.

A groan left his lips. He slowly pushed himself into a sitting position, bringing his hands to his temple and rubbing it gently. It didn't do anything to help.

"Merlin," he whispered to himself, "What happened?"

His eyes fluttered open and he realized, suddenly, that he was in the middle of the hall at Hogwarts, laying on the cold concrete floor. The Fat Lady's portrait was nearby, so he must be near the Gryffindor Common Room.

Why in Merlin's name was he near the Gryffindor Common Room?

A shiver ran down his spine.

He pulled himself to his feet, wincing as his head throbbed, and wrapped his arms around himself. He knew that it was the middle of winter but wasn't there supposed to be a charm on the castle to keep it warm?

"Child? Child, are you okay?"

He spun around on his feet. One of the portraits was speaking, an elderly lady with a plate of biscuits in her hand. She wasn't looking at him, though. She was speaking to a crumpled form nearby.

The other person was laying in a pool of blood. They were faced away with him on their side. Their green robes were torn, and their right arm had been carved into. There was some word there, but the blood covered it and made it impossible to see what it was. There was a gash on their head that was bleeding profusely, and a deep stab wound in their side gushed out blood. Their leg was twisted into an impossible position.

He stumbled forward but was suddenly cut off by the sound of a gasp and a shriek of horror.

His head snapped to the side. Freddie and Roxanne had rounded the corner. They were dressed in quidditch practice uniforms, so the team must have just let out. They froze at the sight in front of them, but then Roxanne ran forward…

And right toward Albus.

She didn't slow down as she ran towards him, and he flinched, prepared to have her ram straight into him. But it didn't happen.

She ran through him.

He blinked in surprise and spun around. She fell to her knees beside the crumpled form and shouted at Freddie to find a professor.

"Roxanne?" he called out, voice shaking. He took a few steps forward, "Roxanne, what's going on?"

She didn't respond. Her hands hesitantly reached out to the boy on the ground and rolled him onto his back. A choked cry left her lips and she brought her hands to the boy's side, trying to stop the bleeding.

Something pressed down on his own side.

Albus stepped forward to get a better look. He found himself staring straight into his own face.

"Hey, hey, hey, Al," Roxanne was whispering to Albus' body. She brought a shaking hand up to his neck to feel for a pulse, "Hey, you're okay. You're going to be okay."

He stared at himself, feeling even colder than before. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion. He shook his head.

"I'm right here," he said, "Roxanne, I'm _right here_."

She didn't hear him.

His head rolled to the side, skin deathly pale. Albus couldn't see himself breathing.

What had happened? The last thing he remembered was sitting in the library and studying for Transfiguration. He'd been angry with James over his brother's latest prank. Now he was here.

Now he was… dead?

He stared at the scene, watching as Roxanne began administering CPR. He didn't even know that she knew how to do that.

A few more people arrived. Someone screamed. Another person fainted. A crowd began to grow around them.

Someone pushed through the crowd. Neville moved towards them quickly, Freddie right behind him.

"What happened?" Neville demanded. He felt to his knees beside them, pulling out his wand and muttering a spell softly under his breath. Albus felt a tingling sensation throughout his body.

"I don't know," Roxanne answered. There were tears streaming down her cheeks now, "I was coming back from practice and saw him. His pulse is weak, and he isn't breathing. I tried CPR, but it isn't working."

Neville nodded. His expression was hard and focused. He bent down and listened for breathing, and when he didn't find one, he turned his head back to Roxanne.

"Hold his head in place."

Roxanne obeyed. She placed her hands on either side of his head, and Albus could feel the pressure. Neville waved his wand over his throat and muttered softly under his breath.

"Spiritus vitae."

Albus felt cool air suddenly rush into his lungs not of his own accord. On the ground, his body's mouth opened, and his chest began to move up and down.

"He's breathing," Roxanne said.

"Not on his own. The spell is making him breath. He needs medical treatment now. I'm going to stabilize his body and levitate him to the hospital wing. You go alert the Headmistress."

Roxanne nodded and bolted down hall.

Albus felt a spell run over him. It tingled down him and he felt suddenly stiff, but he was still able to move. On the ground, however, his body had been spelled completely still.

Neville waved his wand and suddenly he was floating in the air.

The Head Boy and Head Girl had arrived. They ushered people out of the way as Neville walking quickly away from the scene, the body floating in front of him.

Suddenly, when Neville had walked about five meters, Albus felt himself jerk forward until he was standing beside his body again.

"What the-"

Neville moved quickly, and pretty soon he was about five meters away again, and Albus was jerked back towards them by some unseen force.

"Okay, okay."

He jogged beside Neville to keep up with him.

They arrived at the hospital wing quickly. Madame Oswald was already ready for them. Freddie was nearby, pale and quiet. He must have run ahead of them to alert her.

"He isn't breathing on his own," Neville started speaking the moment the door opened, "I cast the breathing spell on him. He hit his head pretty hard and has been stabbed in the side. I'm pretty sure his leg is broken, too. There is bruising on the neck indicative of strangulation. Lots of blood loss."

"Put him on the bed," Madame Oswald ordered, juggling several vials of potions in her hands. Her black hair was pulled back into a tight black bun.

His body was lowered onto the nearest bed. Her wand ran over it slowly and Albus squirmed at the awkward feeling.

"This doesn't make any sense," he whispered, shaking his head, "I'm not dead."

If he wasn't dead, why was he a… ghost? Was he even a ghost?

"Go alert the aurors," Madame Oswald said, "Someone tried to kill him, and they're probably still in the castle."

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**Author's Note: Hope you guys enjoyed! More information will be answered next chapter! Leave a review and let me know what you thought about it.**


	2. Chapter 2

Albus considered leaving to follow Neville when he left but remembered the invisible force that had kept him from straying too far from his body and thought better of it.

Instead, he sat down on the bed next to… next to himself.

Madame Oswald worked quickly, and he felt every spell that she cast on his body. He felt his leg wrench back into the correct position and the muscle and skin on his side to knit itself together. None of it hurt (she had spelled a potion into his stomach before she started healing that had left him pretty numb) but it felt weird and uncomfortable.

He strained his memory, trying to remember what had happened, but nothing came to him. He had been brooding in the library, trying to study and forget about how annoyed he was with his brother, but that was all he knew. There had been footsteps behind him, he thought, but he never saw or had any indication of who it belonged to.

He definitely did not remember someone trying to kill him. He definitely did not remember someone very nearly succeeding.

Madame Oswald had moved onto what must be internal injuries when the doors to the hospital wing slammed open.

Harry Potter rushed inside, green eyes frenzied and hair sticking up like he had just rolled out of bed.

"Dad!"

Albus leaped off of the bed that he was sitting on and hurried over to his father, but Harry ran straight through him.

"What happened?" Harry demanded as he approached the bed, but the moment he was close enough to catch sight of Albus' body, he came to a stop. He sucked in a breath and stumbled, catching himself on the nearest bed.

Madame Oswald did not look up from her actions. Her wand waved over Albus' torso, and he could feel a tingling in his chest.

"That exact information is currently unknown. All I can tell you is that he was attacked. He is in very bad shape, and if you are going to be in here, you need to stay out of my way."

Albus unconsciously moved towards his father, despite knowing that his father had no way of seeing him. He reached out to place a hand on his arm, desperate to let him know that he was right there, but his hand traveled through his body. His father didn't react. He just stared forward.

There was a look on his face that Albus had only ever seen when his father had a nightmare.

The door opened again. Neville came jogging in, followed by a group of aurors with solemn expressions on their faces.

Harry just barely glanced at them before he began to speak.

"I want you to figure out who attacked him. Now."

"Roxanne and Fred Weasley found him," Neville spoke up quickly, "Near the Gryffindor tower. You can probably ask portraits around if they saw anything."

There was a chorus of nods and the group dispersed, muttering to each other about who was going to do who. They were going off of little information, but Albus knew that they had gone off of less before.

There was a short moment of silence as Neville walked up and gently squeezed Harry's shoulder.

Albus stood nearby, helpless, shivering. He wrapped his arms around his torso, wincing lightly as the tingling in his chest grew at the same time as Madame Oswald began muttering something under her breath.

"Breathe, Harry," Neville was whispering to his father, "Breathe."

Harry took a shaky breath. His hands shook violently. Madame Oswald glanced up shortly then moved away just enough to allow for Harry to reach forward and grab Albus' hand.

Albus felt his hand grow warm. It was weird, but it felt nice.

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An hour passed before Madame Oswald finished healing him. The bruises on his neck had not disappeared, but she had rubbed bruise balm on them that he knew from experience would make them go away in less than forty-eight hours. Now that the blood was gone, he could see that he had bruises on his face that would need a few hours to fully heal as well. The rest of his injuries, however, seemed to have gone away.

He was still existing outside of his body.

"When will he wake up?" Harry asked Madame Oswald as she packed away her potions and balms.

"That depends on him. I've mostly healed all of his injuries, but after such an intense healing session, his body will probably need time to rest. Give him some time."

She fell silent for a moment, before continuing. Her eyebrows were pinched together.

"I'm not taking him off the breathing charm just yet. I want to monitor him a bit more."

Albus sat on the bed beside his father, staring at himself. Something told him that his body was not resting at the moment. There was something else going on that Madame Oswald had not caught, but he could tell that she knew that something wasn't quite right.

Like, perhaps, the fact that his soul was not where it should be.

The door swung open and one of his aurors entered. Harry glanced up an offered the woman a light smile.

"Auror Young. Any news?"

She flipped open a notebook and began to speak in a quick, blunt tone.

"We interviewed Fred and Roxanne Weasley. They were coming back from Quidditch practice when they found him. Fred went to find a professor while Roxanne stayed with him. The portraits said that it was like he just appeared. One moment, he wasn't there. The next, he was. They said that he showed up moments before the Weasley twins rounded the corner. We couldn't find any evidence of any magical spells being performed on the portraits."

Harry frowned as he listened. He squeezed Albus' hand.

"Anything else?"

Young nodded.

"We interviewed his friend, Scorpius Malfoy. Malfoy said that he disappeared after getting into a fight with your other son. He apparently said he was going to the library. That was roughly five and a half hours before the Weasleys found him. He missed two classes. Malfoy claims to have covered for him, thinking that he was still upset. I talked to the librarian. She saw him enter the library and leave about fifteen minutes later. There is about five hours of time where he was missing."

Albus blinked at that. He furrowed his eyebrows and leaned back on the bed, thinking. He couldn't remember leaving the library, let alone going five hours between the library and when he woke up.

"Did you talk to James?"

Young looked wary. She flipped a page in her notebook and gave a soft cough.

"I did. Apparently, he had played a prank on Albus and covered him with ink in the middle of the hallway. He spelled him clean afterwards, but they had gotten into quite the heated match before, according to James, Albus stormed off and he didn't see him again."

Harry nodded idly. Young looked concerned about this fight, and Albus felt a sudden chill down his back. He shivered again and pulled his arms around his torso, but he couldn't warm himself up.

"They're always fighting," Harry said, "Did you tell James what happened?"

"I told him that Albus was in the hospital wing and that it looked like someone had attacked him," she hesitated, "I suggested that he come and see his brother, but he said that he was busy."

Albus winced lightly. He wasn't surprised. James had been livid with him when they parted ways. Albus probably shouldn't have said some of the things he did. Still, it hurt.

"Ah, I'll probably have to have a talk with him," Harry sighed. He tapped his finger against Albus' wrist.

"Sir, with all due respect," she paused, mouth opening and closing for a moment. She took a deep breath and blurted it out, "He _is_ our number one suspect right now."

Albus' mouth fell open. He stared at the woman, stomach twisting, and found himself shaking his head.

"You're crazy," he spoke out loud, forgetting momentarily that no one could hear him, "James is a prat, but he wouldn't try to kill me."

Harry had a similar belief. His back straightened and he turned to her with narrowed eyes.

"Have you lost your mind, Young? They're brothers. They're always fighting, but James has never _purposefully hurt _him. This was someone trying to _kill_ him."

"He is the only person with a motive," Young tried to explain, but Harry cut her off.

"Fighting with his brother is hardly a motive," he exclaimed. He let go of Albus' hand as he stood up, "He doesn't have a motive to try to kill him. Young, I'm the Boy-Who-Lived. I can guarantee you that there are a lot of people with a motive. People have wanted to kill me and my family since I was born. It wasn't James. He is _not_ a suspect."

She was quiet for a moment. She took a deep breath and made eye contact with him.

"Harry. I know that you are Head Auror, but this case is too close to you. I am keeping you updated out of respect, but if you let your personal feelings overwhelm you, I will have to stay quiet. At the moment, we have to compile a list of suspects. James is number one. I'm not saying he did it but-"

"He didn't do it!" Harry roared, loud enough that Albus flinched in surprise. He was pretty sure he had never seen his father so angry, "I know my son. He and Albus fight like cats and dogs on a good day, but he still loves him."

Love was a strong word. He blinked slightly at that phrase and tilted his head in thought. He wasn't sure James _loved_ him, but his brother was a Potter through and through. He didn't kill people.

"You're wasting time on finding this person by looking into my son," Harry continued.

"You and I both know that, in situations like these, the culprit is almost always someone close to the victim."

"This isn't a normal situation!"

Young fell silent, but the look on her face told Albus that she wasn't about to discard James as a suspect. Instead, however, she changed the subject.

"How is he?"

"Resting. He's still not breathing on his own, but they have the breathing charm on him. She said she wants to monitor him for a bit longer before taking him off of it."

Young nodded lightly. Her eyes flickered to his body, and Albus squirmed unconsciously.

"He's a strong one. He has to be, if he's your son," she said softly, "Once he wakes up, I will need to interview him."

"Of course," Harry said. He sat back down and took Albus' hand.

Young hummed softly. She moved away from the bed and began to walk out without another word, but she paused after opening the door.

"Your daughter is here. Can she come in?"

"Send her in."

Lily pushed the door open wide as she practically flew into the room. There were tears on her face as she flew into Harry's arms, eyed glued onto Albus' motionless form. Harry pulled her into his lap.

"Scorpius told me what happened," she cried, sniffling, "He said that Madame Oswald doesn't like it when we crowd the Hospital Wing, but I had to make sure he was okay."

"He's holding on, Lily-Bear. Madame Oswald has him mostly healed up. He's just resting, now."

She sniffed and wiped at her eyes violently. Albus blinked lightly at her reaction. He pulled his knees to his chest and shivered.

"Are you going to find out who hurt him?"

"Of course. Nothing's going to stop me from finding them."

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**Author's Note: Leave a review and let me know what you think? **


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